2 comeback kids bounce back to Notre Dame football

Frome, Leitko thrilled to be back in the fold

Frome, Leitko thrilled to be back in the fold

August 10, 2006|ERIC HANSEN Tribune Staff Writer

SOUTH BEND -- They were two of the brightest stars in former Notre Dame football coach Tyrone Willingham's first recruiting class four years ago, defensive ends bursting with promise and reachable dreams. Today the two fifth-year seniors are survivors. And if Chris Frome and Travis Leitko somehow get swallowed up in the numbers game on the defensive line this fall, they can take solace in knowing that they made it all the way back. But both of them want more. So much more. Frome saw glimpses of it last season, when he finally earned a starting spot at right end. Yet he can still remember the popping sensation in his knee during last season's epic battle with USC in mid-October, then the feeling of looseness and instability in his leg and finally the horror that his season might be over. For Leitko, his pain might have been worse. He was the student in his graduating class voted most likely to succeed at The Woodlands (Texas) High School. He also was the biggest threat to match Irish head coach Charlie Weis' perfect SAT score. However Leitko was booted out of Notre Dame and into academic exile following his junior year, just when he was putting the pieces together for a comeback in the classroom. Leitko was diagnosed with Inattentive Attention Deficit Disorder, the lesser-known and less-frequently diagnosed cousin to the Hyperactive-Impulsive ADD, as a sophomore at Notre Dame. The ADD, coupled with a tough engineering curriculum, sent Leitko's GPA into a nose-dive. "I basically coasted on my intelligence up until college," Leitko said. "I was able to grasp things well enough, early enough that I didn't have to sit down and go through it. With engineering, that's something you can't do. You have to stay with it. That's what made the (ADD) come forward, and that's how it was able to be addressed and corrected." A combination of medication and a switch in majors to history proved to be effective. "Those types of courses, that type of structure is more cohesive to my way of studying, my way of processing information," he said. "I didn't expect it. I don't think anyone did, but it arose and I had to deal with it." That and a whole lot more. As Leitko was struggling to stay in school, his mother Janice was bedridden back in the Houston area with cancer. Soon cancer stalked his father, Mike, as well. Janice lost her job as an elementary school secretary due to her extensive time away from the job. The family's finances hemorrhaged, but never its courage. "There is no way we could have made it without Travis here," said Janice, whose health and that of her husband have taken dramatic turns for the better. "I would have had to have a caretaker in my home, and they couldn't have done all the things Travis did. "He cleaned, he went grocery shopping, he changed my bandages. He stayed with Mike all night when he went into the hospital for his surgery. He soothed our fears and gave us hope. Oh yeah, and he cooked too." And reportedly was very good at it. "Well, he had a pretty good teacher," Janice said. As blessed as Leitko felt to be in position to help his parents, he would have preferred it to have been a choice rather than a twist of fate. "It was a two-edged sword," Leitko said. "I can't see myself anywhere else but with my parents at the time, but it still hurt every Saturday watching the team out there. I rooted for them every step of the way, but sometimes it ripped my heart out not to be there." Leitko watched on Oct. 15 as Frome was carried off the field in the heartbreaking loss to USC, then saw Ronald Talley grow into the position in the succeeding weeks when Frome was ruled out for the season with a knee injury. Frome did go to the Fiesta Bowl as a spectator but was sent home early due to a violation of team rules. "I'm not at liberty to talk about it," Frome said. "The only thing I'm worried about right now is camp. We're all on a level playing field." And both Frome and Leitko have a second wind as well. "It's great to have Travis back," Frome said. "He's a great character. He can be a real inspiration." Leitko had to apply to be reinstated at ND for the summer, then had to do well in summer school for Weis to even consider him coming back to the team as a walk-on. He received two A's in the classes he took over the summer. And as far as earning back his scholarship? "He appears to be well on his way," Weis said. Leitko struggled early in his career to move up the depth chart, he said, due to mental blocks when it came to confidence and disagreements with then-defensive line coach Greg Mattison. But never did he consider walking away from Notre Dame, not even when he was pushed away from it. "His dad was kind of upset that Notre Dame knew Travis' background with the ADD, but they still sent him home," Janice said. "He tried to talk Travis into looking around, but he backed off when he saw that this was still Travis' dream." A fuzzy dream, but a dream, nevertheless -- with no sure scholarship, no sure position (he's working primarily at defensive tackle) and no sure playing time. "I'm playing wherever they need me to play," said Leitko, whose recent 23rd birthday celebration included more glowing words from Weis. "I'm here to contribute to the team. If they say 'Jump,' I say 'How high?' " For the first time in a long time, it feels like the sky really is the limit.